Commentary: Charging legislative candidate Duane Sand with a crime for making a false statement in a political ad is a travesty

Earlier this year Duane Sand, who ran for both the U.S. House and Senate on behalf of the NDGOP in previous cycles, challenged two incumbent Republican lawmakers in District 47.

I’m a believer in that sort of intra-party competition. It’s healthy for incumbents, particularly incumbents who have been in office for a while, to be challenged. And it’s pretty clear that, in most of North Dakota, Democrats aren’t providing much of a challenge.

Anyway, during the course of Sand’s campaign he ran an ad saying incumbent state Rep. George Keiser voted no on legislation which would have capped the dollar amount impact of property taxes. But, as it turns out, Keiser did actually support that legislation. He missed the initial vote on it, but supported it later.

Sand, to his credit, ran a second ad acknowledging his error and apologizing for it. Still, Keiser took the issue to law enforcement saying Sand violated section 16.1-10-04 of the North Dakota Century Code: